


New World

by E350tb



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 14:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17285927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/pseuds/E350tb
Summary: Pearl helps Yellow and Blue adjust to their new world.(Secret Santa for airamcg)





	New World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [airamcg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/airamcg/gifts).



> Guess who forgot to post this for several days. It's me! Oops! XD
> 
> But yeah, this was done for the Cluster's Secret Santa exchange. I got Airam, and this was quite a lot of fun to write. I do like Pearls, I do.

**New World**

It was pleasantly cool on the beach tonight, and Pearl was humming to herself as she strolled along the sand. She closed her eyes, listening to the sound of the waves crashing in the distance. She carried a small bag under her arm - she’d picked up a few cartons of milk for Steven. (After all, his human bones needed calcium!)

It was on nights like this that Pearl felt most the glad she called Earth home. So few planets had this sense of _atmosphere_ to them, this sense of _life_. Most of the worlds she’d visited had long been pillaged by Homeworld’s insatiable appetite - they were gloomy, grey temples of industry, covered in kindergartens and mines and factories, or the eyesores that the Diamonds called ‘standard architecture.’ Earth was still covered in plants and animals and people; it was beautiful and unique.

She was just walking towards the stairs up to the beach house when she noticed a strange, persistent sound behind a nearby piece of the Temple’s debris. She paused.

“What was that?” she whispered to herself.

She turned around, straining to make out the noise. It was soft; almost like breathing, but haggard and strained. Pearl frowned - she knew _exactly_ what it was.

Slowly, she crept over the the rock and slowly looked behind.

Yellow was curled into a ball, her chest heaving as she sobbed into her knees. Next to her, Blue was gently rubbing her back, but her face was set into a deep, uncertain frown.

“...Yellow?” asked Pearl, kneeling down next to the other Pearl. “Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?!” demanded Yellow, her shrill voice strained and hoarse. “I’ve lost everything!”

She sat up against the rock, clutching her head.

“My whole world was to serve my Diamond!” she exclaimed. “She was _everything!_ She was my whole reason for existing! And… and now what do I do? I have no purpose! I’m _worthless!_ ”

“Yellow…”

“ _Why did I come with you?!_ ”

Yellow buried her head in her knees again, sobbing so heavily she sounded like a steam train at full pelt.

“Hey, it’s okay,” said Pearl, putting a hand on her shoulder. “This is a chance to find something new…”

“We tried.”

Pearl looked up. Blue had spoken up, her expression distant.

“We tried to assist the Greg at the ‘Car Wash,’” she explained, “but it didn’t go well.”

Pearl nodded thoughtfully.

“I was wondering why the car wash was on fire,” she said.

“Our attempt to help the Fryman in making ‘the fries’ was also unsatisfactory,” continued Blue. “And the less said about ‘babysitting’ the Onion, the better.”

She sighed, looking down at the sand.

“I suppose the only thing we’re good at is serving our Diamonds,” she said.

“We should never have come with you!” wailed Yellow. “ _We’re not cut out to be renegades!_ ”

Pearl sighed and sat down next to them, putting an arm around Yellow in an attempt to sooth the distressed gem.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” she said. “You don’t have to be a master at everything straight away. It’s going to take time before you find out what you’re good at.”

“But where do we start?” asked Blue.

Pearl rubbed her chin, thinking it over for a few moments.

“Blue,” she said, “you can draw, can’t you?”

“... _draw?_ ”

“On your holopad,” explained Pearl. “You were drawing little doodles or something back in the meeting with the Diamonds…”

“Oh!” Blue nodded. “Is that what it’s called on Earth? But… I only did that because my Diamond wanted me to…”

“...but now you can do it for yourself!” said Pearl. “One of Amethyst’s friends, Vidalia; she’s an artist. Maybe she could teach you!”

“The parental unit of the Onion?” quizzed Blue.

“Well… Onion grows on you… I think,” Pearl shrugged. “But it’d be a really good start for you, and there’s no pressure to be excellent at it right away. I mean, I took _decades_ to become an expert swordswoman, so…”

“But what about _me?_ ” demanded Yellow, “What do _I_ have?”

“You can write, can’t you?” replied Pearl.

“How does _that_ help me?!”

“Well, you wrote for a _Diamond_ , right?” continued Pearl. “That means you were pretty good at it, weren’t you?”

“...if I do say so myself,” replied Yellow, her voice an odd combination of smug and distraught.

“That’s good!” nodded Pearl. “You could use that writing for yourself! You could become a journalist, or a novelist, or a scriptwriter, or…”

“I have no idea what any of those words mean.”

“I… well they’re… um…”

Pearl snapped her fingers.

“Talk to Connie,” she said. “She can help with that! She’s an avid reader and she writes a lot of… what’s it called? _Fanfiction?_ ”

“She writes stories about cooling units?” quizzed Yellow. “Humans are _weird._ ”

“She’ll explain,” shrugged Pearl. “So what do you say? How about you try that?”

Blue and Yellow glanced warily at each other.

“For me?” asked Pearl, smiling gently.

Yellow sighed, wiping her eyes.

“Alright,” she grunted, “but only out of Pearl solidarity.”

Pearl beamed.

* * *

“So, what’cha wanna draw?”

Amethyst laid her back on Vidalia’s couch, lazily tracing patterns in the ceiling with her eyes. Next to her, Blue was staring at an empty page in a sketchbook Vidalia had loaned her, her face set in a frown. She held a pencil in her hand, but had made no progress in deciding what she was going to sketch. She had just come out of a long conversation with Vidalia - the artist had told her that she was allowed to ‘make stuff up,’ that she didn’t have to draw records of events like she had on Homeworld. It was a concept Blue found daunting.

“I… don’t know,” replied Blue meekly. “I can’t think of anything.”

“Well, what do you _want_ to draw?” asked Amethyst. “You can draw _anything you want_ , dude!”

“That’s the problem,” muttered Blue. “I was always _told_ what to draw. Now that I don’t have my Diamond to direct me, I…”

“Well,” interrupted Amethyst, “why don’t you draw me?”

“You?” Blue blushed slightly.

“Yeah, man,” replied Amethyst. “Works for V, right? Why not you?”

She rolled over, bending one knee and placing her hand under her cheek. She smiled impishly.

“Draw me like one of your French girls, Bloop,” she said.

“...what does that mean?” asked Blue.

“I dunno, but apparently it’s funny.”

Blue got up, moving over to the coffee table. She set down the sketch book, readied her pencil, and looked up to get another look at Amethyst. The quartz winked, and Blue blushed again.

“I… I don’t know if it’s going to be any good,” she warned.

“Eh, you gotta start somewhere,” replied Amethyst. “Just do your best, man - you’ll do fine…”

* * *

Yellow put down the book, turning to Steven and Connie, who were sitting on the latter’s bed and staring expectantly.

“Well?” asked Connie. “What did you think?”

Yellow templed her hands in front of her nose and mouth for a brief moment.

“What,” she said at last, “in the _stars_ was that ending?! It made no sense!”

“Finally!” exclaimed Connie. “Somebody gets it!”

“Oh dear,” muttered Steven.

“They spent fifty pages on a cake!” shouted Yellow. “I don’t even know what that is, but it’s ridiculous! And they left nearly all of their plot threads open! And look at all these grammar mistakes!”

She crossed her arms.

“My Diamond would never have stood for this.”

“Yeah, but… what about you?” asked Steven. “You can choose for yourself now? Maybe _you_ like it.”

Yellow pursed her lips.

“No,” she said firmly. “I really don’t.”

Steven frowned, deflating somewhat.

“So, you think you’re gonna write a review?” Connie asked excitedly.

“Oh, I have some _opinions_ about this Earth novel,” replied Yellow, turning to Connie’s laptop.

* * *

Pearl nodded as she finished reading Yellow’s book review, putting the paper gently down on the table.

“I think you could’ve done with less death threats,” she said. “But overall, it’s a good first start!”

Yellow smiled as she took her review back.

“So… less threats of destruction,” she nodded. “I can do that.”

They turned to the door. The sun was coming down now, and neither Blue nor Amethyst were anywhere to be seen.

“They’re taking their time,” mused Pearl.

Yellow sniffed.

“You shouldn’t have sent her with the Amethyst,” she replied. “Don’t let this get out, but-” her voice dropped to a whisper, “-she’s always had a strange _fascination_ for quartezes.”

Pearl raised an eyebrow.

“I know the feeling,” she muttered.

At last the door opened. Blue and Amethyst walked in, the latter in animated conversation. Blue held a sheet of paper behind her back. They stopped as they reached the coffee table, Amethyst throwing herself onto the couch (and nearly launching Pearl off of it.)

“Hey Bloop!” she exclaimed. “Show ‘em your drawing!”

“I… I don’t know if I should…”

“Hey, it’s okay!” replied Amethyst. “They’ll like it, trust me!”

Blue blushed and showed off the sketch.

The sketch was rough, with thick smudges where mistakes had been erased and a few anatomical issues here and there, and every line was perfectly straight, but it was easy for Pearl to see what it was. It was Amethyst, drawn in what Pearl might call a ‘semi-provocative’ pose on what appeared to be Vidalia’s couch, an impish (and misshapen, although Pearl couldn’t quite tell if it was supposed to like that or if the lining was a bit off) grin on her geometrically drawn face.

“How is it?” Blue asked nervously.

“It’s good!” Pearl replied. “It’s a _really_ good first start! I’d hang it on the fridge, but I think it’s a bit too _mature_ for Steven…”

“C’mon, Pearl! That’s tame!” exclaimed Amethyst. “I didn’t even take my shirt…”

“ _Anyway!_ ” interrupted Pearl. “I think you’ve made a really good start today! But the main thing is, do you two feel any better?”

Yellow and Blue glanced at each other.

“Yes,” replied Yellow. “I feel… what’s the word?”

Blue smiled.

“Happier.”

* * *

Pearl sighed as she stepped back into her room, the door closing behind her.

“How’d it go?” a voice called from behind one of the fountains.

“I think it went well.”

Pearl walked behind the fountain, finding Bismuth sitting on the ground reading a comic.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Connie gave it to me,” replied Bismuth, “It’s about some human who has spider powers? I don’t think I really get it, but I like it.”

“Well, you’d better make room.”

Bismuth grinned, putting down the comic as Pearl settled down in her lap. She lay down, pulling the smaller gem into a hug.

“So, an author Pearl and an artist Pearl,” chuckled Bismuth. “Who’d have thought?”

“Yeah,” replied Pearl, “I’m a bad influence.”

“Oh yeah, the _worst._ ”

They chuckled.

Pearl’s face fell, sighing as she looked up at the distant ceiling.

“I just wish there was something I could do for Pink,” she said sadly. “She’s still up there, in White Diamond’s clutches, being controlled like some kind of puppet, and I…”

“Hey,” Bismuth replied. “We’ll free her too. Just give us some time.”

Pearl nodded.

“And until then,” added Bismuth. “You can always vent your problems to me.”

“Vent?” Pearl chuckled. “Right now I’m a little more interested in a _different_ kind of letting off steam…”

They laughed, and Bismuth pulled her in closer.

* * *

“What do you think Pearl and Bismuth do in there?” asked Steven, laying on his bed.

“I know what they do,” replied Garnet, who was reading the newspaper on the couch.

“Well, what is it?”

Garnet paused.

“ _Stuff._ ”


End file.
